People Against Oppression and War

More sites worth visiting:
People Against Oppression and War

http://www.paow.org/paow_info_.htm

We think that given the fact that the government has freely chosen to be at the mercy of corporations, and therefore it cannot act in the public interest because of its purposeful conflict, policy decisions that we have to live or die by should be made by us. In these days of naked, un-bridled capitalist imperatives that governments try to ram down our throats, it can't be any clearer that people are suffering, some choking on this sham of a democracy.

In our name, the Bush government justifies the invasion and occupation of Iraq on false pretenses, raining down destruction, horror, and misery, bringing death to more than 100,000 Iraqis. It sends our youth to destroy entire cities for the sake of so-called democratic elections, while intimidating and disenfranchising thousands of African American and other voters at home.

In our name, the Bush government holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home. It strips the rights of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the U.S., denies them legal counsel, stigmatizes and holds them without cause. Thousands have been deported.

Could we have imagined a few years ago that core principles such as the separation of church and state, due process, presumption of innocence, freedom of speech, and habeas corpus would be discarded so easily? Now, anyone can be declared an "enemy combatant" without meaningful redress or independent review by a President who is concentrating power in the executive branch. His choice for Attorney General is the legal architect of the torture that has been carried out in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib.

We are human beings, not economic units.

Advocate for public power, not corporate control.


The Bush government seeks to impose a narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism as government policy. No longer on the margins of power, this extremist movement aims to strip women of their reproductive rights, to stoke hatred of gays and lesbians, and to drive a wedge between spiritual experience and scientific truth. We will not surrender to extremists our right to think. AIDS is not a punishment from God. Global warming is a real danger. Evolution happened. All people must be free to find meaning and sustenance in whatever form of religious or spiritual belief they choose. But religion can never be compulsory. These extremists may claim to make their own reality, but we will not allow them to make ours.

http://www.paow.org/paow_info_.htm


(This was posted by and this note added by Caroline Emma Beverage)

I liked what was written at this site so much that I had to copy a few excerpts from it to share with my readers. If it appeals to you go visit this site for more no punches pulled reading.

I have to add here that the trucking industry is one area where our government is allowing rampant oppression to exist. I say that because I worked in the trucking industry for 35 years and was blackballed out of the industry because I insisted on stopping and taking a shower every day. Insisting on a shower every day is a very RADICAL act that the majority of drivers do not have the courage to do. That is because they are afraid that they will lose their careers. A very real fear based on what the trucking industry actually does.)

People Against Oppression and War

More sites worth visiting:
People Against Oppression and War

http://www.paow.org/paow_info_.htm

We think that given the fact that the government has freely chosen to be at the mercy of corporations, and therefore it cannot act in the public interest because of its purposeful conflict, policy decisions that we have to live or die by should be made by us. In these days of naked, un-bridled capitalist imperatives that governments try to ram down our throats, it can't be any clearer that people are suffering, some choking on this sham of a democracy.

In our name, the Bush government justifies the invasion and occupation of Iraq on false pretenses, raining down destruction, horror, and misery, bringing death to more than 100,000 Iraqis. It sends our youth to destroy entire cities for the sake of so-called democratic elections, while intimidating and disenfranchising thousands of African American and other voters at home.

In our name, the Bush government holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home. It strips the rights of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the U.S., denies them legal counsel, stigmatizes and holds them without cause. Thousands have been deported.

Could we have imagined a few years ago that core principles such as the separation of church and state, due process, presumption of innocence, freedom of speech, and habeas corpus would be discarded so easily? Now, anyone can be declared an "enemy combatant" without meaningful redress or independent review by a President who is concentrating power in the executive branch. His choice for Attorney General is the legal architect of the torture that has been carried out in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib.

We are human beings, not economic units.

Advocate for public power, not corporate control.


The Bush government seeks to impose a narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism as government policy. No longer on the margins of power, this extremist movement aims to strip women of their reproductive rights, to stoke hatred of gays and lesbians, and to drive a wedge between spiritual experience and scientific truth. We will not surrender to extremists our right to think. AIDS is not a punishment from God. Global warming is a real danger. Evolution happened. All people must be free to find meaning and sustenance in whatever form of religious or spiritual belief they choose. But religion can never be compulsory. These extremists may claim to make their own reality, but we will not allow them to make ours.

http://www.paow.org/paow_info_.htm


(This was posted by and this note added by Caroline Emma Beverage)

I liked what was written at this site so much that I had to copy a few excerpts from it to share with my readers. If it appeals to you go visit this site for more no punches pulled reading.

I have to add here that the trucking industry is one area where our government is allowing rampant oppression to exist. I say that because I worked in the trucking industry for 35 years and was blackballed out of the industry because I insisted on stopping and taking a shower every day. Insisting on a shower every day is a very RADICAL act that the majority of drivers do not have the courage to do. That is because they are afraid that they will lose their careers. A very real fear based on what the trucking industry actually does.)

More Great Sites to Explore

Radical, pull no punches, tired of the BS excellent Gay site:
http://thespincycle.blogspot.com

Here is the last one. This is an excellent, very professionally presented site that is so full of information on the climate changes that it will require several visits to fully explore.
http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/

Good writing, needs more than one visit to do it justice
http://earthcitizen.blogspot.com/

I need to start taking notes as I cruise through these sites. So I can give better discriptions. I liked the writing or I would not have jotted down the site.
http://reasonablyascertainablereality.com

Does anyone know how I can list my contacts on the sidebar so that they are always available? If you do, please e-mail me the instructions at:
emmabeverage@yahoo.com

Thanks

Emma


Again I agreed with the writing and the writing is well done. Did touch on the topic of abortion.
http://slacktivist.typepad.com

Double decker bus in England

Found an interesting blog with photos of England:

http://clwphotos.blogspot.com/

Every Life is Sacred

By Caroline Emma Beverage

I wrote this poem because someone wrote to our website and asked for our opinion on abortion. I asked to be the one to answer this question because I have a very “flip” answer that I usually give to that question.
I tried to respond to the individual only to find that the e-mail address was not valid. That made me realize that I should make an effort, to put this question in perspective to all the other issues that plague our world. I am a firm believer that it is important to look at the whole picture, at least as much as that is possible. When an issue is isolated, it is easy to convince people that things may be one way when in fact if the entire picture were considered it would be harder to fool people.
Since this boils down to religion and the oppression of women I would like to share an interesting observation that I have made in my life. My grandfather was a trucker who owned a fleet of trucks at one time. He was also one of those rare truck drivers who did not mind teaching his wife and daughters to drive. Therefore, I grew up with some knowledge about trucking. I married a trucker in 1968. I managed to learn just enough about driving while I was married to land a driving job after my divorce. I have been in, or had connections to, the trucking industry my entire life. When I first started driving there were almost no women in this field. After I started using a CB in my truck I would, on a very rare occasion, hear another woman out there; but I never saw them. I might hear a woman a couple of times a year. During that time I never saw a cross on a truck or a mobile chapel in a truck stop.
It took many years but suddenly women began to appear in trucking everywhere! It must have been like starting a train. It started gradually and then spread like wildfire! The interesting thing about it was that this private male club that had many members living one lifestyle on the road while enjoying the benefits of a real he-man persona at home suddenly changed. Suddenly the men found morals! The next thing you know the trucks are carrying crosses and the truck stops are sporting mobile chapels! Maybe I’m missing something here or reading something into this that isn’t there but…
The crosses and chapels didn’t appear until the women appeared. The private boys club behavior changed drastically or became more hidden. If you had been in the business as long as I had been it wasn’t hard to tell that the majority of fights between truck drivers was really a “come on.” A technique that the drivers used to locate another driver to take care of their sexual needs by emphasizing the sexual curse words in their fighting. After the women arrived in this career the straight men or the men who wanted to appear straight started harassing the men’s men; because they knew that what was happening was not going to be that hard for the women to figure out. Not that I am condemning the men. Far from it, I understand to what lengths people are forced to go to hide who they are because our society allows free reign to oppress people that they are “brain washed” to not approve of.
The point I’m making is the co-relation to religion taking over the trucking industry shortly after women made a big breakthrough in the industry. The Bible was written fifty years after Jesus died. Those people who love power and money more than spirit were already corrupting Jesus’ teachings. It is an old, old story that is still happening today. The oppression of women was written into the Bible simply because it was written at a time that women were so oppressed that people did not even consider the idea of women’s oppression. That is not to say that I do not believe that many spiritual truths are contained in the Bible. But that, that book has been used to justify every conceivable bad behavior that mankind can dream up including war, genocide, the oppression of women, and men and women of every race and culture, who are unfortunate enough to fall in love with someone of their own gender.


We fight to save an unborn babe
while people starve, but that’s okay.
Quality of life, here on earth
not as sacred, as giving birth!
--but every life is sacred.

Orphanages in all nations,
children languish, lost and wasted
yet, we insist that every girl
bring every child into this world.
--cause every life is sacred.

The rich exploit the worthless poor
they want more profit, create more,
slaves to do all the hard labor,
while the rich relax and savor
all that life has to offer.

Uneducated poor are here
to serve and do as they are told,
don’t think, don’t speak, just do your job,
until your old, then you can’t work.
--but every life is sacred.

Sex education in our schools,
would only teach our kids to sin.
God’s rules forbid this knowledge then.
That’s church and state separation!
--and every life is sacred.

We punish those who dare question
others must be shown this lesson.
Send our youth to fight rich men’s wars.
Death approved by authority.
--but every life is sacred.

There are those who cannot fit in
fill our mental institutions.
or lock them away in our jails.
Some lives are spent in living hell.
--but every life is sacred.

Government owned by the wealthy.
Obey our God, obey our laws
be free, in this land of freedom.
Where is freedom without money?
--and every life is sacred.

Forget it all, with alcohol.
The hopeless lose their dreams and pain
with drugs, or sex, or other things
and this might be a jail, as well.
--but every life is sacred.

Prejudice does not exist here.
All belong to the human race.
Religions preach love, but practice
hate - if your gay, but that’s Okay.
--and every life is sacred.

There’s still a place to fit you in.
Life is fair and this is heaven.
Women are not being oppressed,
At least no more than all the rest.
--and every life is sacred.

A young man wins his manhood here,
girls are shamed with a child to rear.
Since punishment and oppression
not the message, not the lesson.
--and every life is sacred.

Equal rights, we do believe in
if punishment must be given
punish both the girl and the boy
take away their hope and their joy.
--cause every life is sacred.

Castrate the man responsible,
that will stop unwanted babies!
They both will have a memento
for a lifetime to remind them,
they failed God and committed sin.
--and every life is sacred.

Must Read!

I have decided to start listing sites that are worthy of being shared by a greater audiance. If other bloggers like this idea maybe we can create a chain. Get a train of good ideas moving here. Here are my first sites that I suggest that other readers read.

http://www.fruitful.blogspot.com/

http://www.brightlightoftruth.blogspot.com/

Mother is Delighted

3/13/01
By: Caroline Emma Beverage


Happiness is in the air
I see her dancing everywhere.
Across the tall golden grasses
Creating waves as she passes.
The grass folds down and up again
As the wind whorls, the grasses bend.
Her kisses gentle and warmly done
Come from her brightly shining sun.
Then she wipes them from my skin
With her embraces of gusty wind.
I quietly watch the clouds blow by
Then I see a twinkling eye.
I see a face and yet another
This fleeting art by The Great Mother.
With a start, I begin to see
Each heavenly face is laughing with glee.
Mother is delighted that I found her key
That she so cleverly hid within me!
So she sends her laughing faces
In the clouds, of all the places!
To let me know that I’ve done her proud
I see it in each passing cloud.

My homework assignment

My e-mail is not accessable at this moment and I need to save my homework somewhere. I am being creative and saving it here so I don't lose my work!

A& P by John Updike, page 333
Three young girls go against the “norm” by wearing bathing suits into a grocery store. They receive the usual “pressure” to conform.

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy, page 544
Talks about the pressure that is applied to young women to conform to societies expectations for women. How unhappy or uncomfortable a woman can feel if she does not feel that she fits into the stereotype that is expected of her. It can cause someone to be unhappy enough to commit suicide.

Daddy by Sylvia Plath, page 538
This poem speaks to Sylvia’s fear of her father, her husband and probably all men. It hints at her intentions of ending everything. Since Sylvia did eventually commit suicide we can assume that she felt unloved and unaccepted by her father. Ultimately, we can also assume that this person felt that they did not fit into society. Another tragedy of our hypocritical lives which makes people miserable if they cannot or will not play the game of hiding their souls in an effort to fit in.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, page 565
This poem addresses the choices that we make in life. How we cannot change those choices even when we think we will go back and go another way at a later date. We seldom go back. And even if we do try to go back the road has changed so it is never the same.

Eleanor Rigby by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, page 546
A poem about the roles that we play in life. We attend church, get married, live and die. All the while, we are dying inside from loneliness, feeling as if we do not fit in.

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar, page 499
The mask is our protection from everyone knowing our lives. We don’t say anything's wrong when there is. "Let them only see us while we wear the mask." Don’t let them in. Conform to mindless society. We are "tortured souls" but heaven forbid anyone else know that we have problems.

Salvation by Langston Hughes, page 467
A story about the pressure that people apply trying to get people to conform. A young man lies about what is real for him so that he can fit in or at least take the pressure off himself. But he is not happy with himself for giving into the peer pressure.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, page 83
A towns’ residents conforms by ritually murdering one of their own residents every year. They don’t remember how the ritual started or why they do it, they just do it. Any talk about not doing the ritual is put down as dangerous talk. Asking for trouble.





Conclusion:

I would have to say that these stories and poems all address the fact that society applies a lot of pressure on people to conform and “fit in.” A large segment of society does not feel like they “belong” but they will do and say the things that are required to make it appear that they do fit in. If most people were honest, they would probably admit that there are only a few people in their lives that really know them. That there are only a small number of people they know well enough so that they can really relax and be themselves around.
When a person decides to quit giving into the pressures applied by their peers they are labeled as radical. I would say that it usually takes a lot of courage to refuse to go along with the status quote. Although, the very act of rebellion can create a subgroup that again applies peer pressure to get its members to conform.
When people are pressured to conform they either grow very strong or they break. If they break they either surrender and return for the larger groups approval, as the boys did in the church where the people were trying to save them for jesus; or the pressure is too much for them to bear and they commit suicide like Sylvia Plath.
In conclusion I would like to suggest that the human species advances due to the people who have the courage to do things differently.

Great Spirit or "Lords Prayer'

Modified by Emma Beverage

Great Spirit
who exists in all things,
Holy art thou,
our Sacred Source.
Your kingdom is here,
When thy will is done.
My thoughts and actions manifest on earth,
your heaven.
Give me this day my daily bread
And forgive me my trespasses.
As I forgive those
who trespass against me.
Lead me not into temptation
but deliver me from all evil.
For this is your creation, your power and glory, forever.

Words Dance

by Emma Beverage

Words dance
images
across page
throughout mind
in ear.
Short burst
of
life spans
star bright
short hand
understand.
World spins
eternity
in split second
paths
traced
across page.

This Is What That Road Meant

Robert Frost 1874-1963 The Road Not Taken

I was supposed to write a summary for THE ROAD NOT TAKEN a poem written by Robert Frost. As I started writing I realized that it was sounding like a poem, so I let it create itself and this was the results.

Emma Beverage 14 Jul 2005

This Is What That Road Meant

Life is filled with many choices.
We cannot know where they will lead,
but trust that we will take the one
that will bring us into the sun.

Each time we choose a way to go,
we leave behind all other roads.
For every yes, there is a no.
And who can say where yes will go.

Though we sometimes
wish we could change,
go back again to choose once more.
In vain we wish to rearrange
The results of the choice we made.

In truth, once we have made our choice
There is no turning back, my friend.
We can never return - again.
To that moment, we made our choice.
So take your medicine, and grin
It is, as it is and that is,
all that it is!

Topsy Turvey Again

Emma Beverage
11/6/82

Topsy turvey again
no peace - no rest
will it ever end?
I’m a slave - a prisoner.
Abraham Lincoln,
savior and gallant leader
made war to set me free.
I feel no freedom.
Like little ants
always the endless task.
Scurry - hurry
I own my soul
I state in defiance.
Yet - I’m not free
to walk away
to conquer majestic mountains
or sail stormy seas.
I am bound and chained
and I want to break my lease.

(My father died 11/8/82)

Poem to my Dad

Emma Beverage

11/22/82

They left him there
Like an empty shell
An empty shell - silent - still

They left him there
So we could stare
So we could stare
At this hollow shell

It looked like my dad
Had gone to sleep
Sleep, sleep, eternal sleep
Sleep that made my family weep

And as I stared, this thought grew
Thoughts would never - again pass through
My daddy’s head
My daddy was dead

Someone had come to steal his soul
I heard his footsteps shuffling - slow
I heard his footsteps - When they took his soul.

Do Not Forsake Me

9/25/04

Why have you forsaken me?
In this my hour of greatest need?
I thought that I could depend
upon your strength to bring me in
to your shores of peace,
abundance and sisterhood at last.
But all I’ve seen is my youth, slip into the past.

Here I stand, all alone
I’ve fought for you, in the face of wrong.
I’ve spoken up. I stood for right.
Learned to hold my own and still not fight.
been betrayed by friends, strangers and family too.
Still, I trusted in only you.

Here I stand broken and alone.
I’ve lost it all. I have no home.
I’m wounded and can hardly stand.
Where is your guiding hand?

I’ve been lied about, ripped apart
hyenas have eaten my heart.
My tortured body is about to be thrown
Into the streets, over the cliff, into the abyss.
Oh, where is my home of bliss?

If miracles you do perform
where are your arms to keep me warm?
Now is the time, It is do or die.
I’ve taken this as far as I can take it.
I have no more strength, don’t think that I can make it.
Great Spirit, do not forsake me now.
I cry out for you to save me, somehow!

I have trusted you to the bitter end.
Where are my wings? Why can’t I fly?
Where is my safety net? Shall I die?
Help me turn my world around.
Give me the strength to hold on,
for the splendor of a new dawn.
Please do not forsake me.

Do the Wealthy Pray?

A moment, freeze dried,
In the eye of my soul.
Heaven branded
into my memory.
Erase my mind
Like a blackboard now


My life in shambles.
Leaving dust, litter, chaos
Wind blowing sand
Filling my mouth, nose, ears.
gritty, blinded
I can’t find my way.

I struggle in vain.
Wind blows sand, without rain.
No strength to fight,
surrender to bitter
wind, wind, wind, wind.
wait for tempest end.

Prayers from my lips.
guide and protect me too.
Don’t leave me down.
With weary eyes I see
my companions.
are beaten and worn.

Life’s not been easy.
each has a cross to bear.
heed our prayers.
All is lost but our faith.
I listen to
each poor soul praying

Hearing words of faith
Bless everyone we meet.
Where is this God?
Can He hear these people?
And answer not?
Do the wealthy pray?

Guest Book

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TV Station that shows shocking facts!

Bet.com

I Want to be a Christian

I want to be a Christian


by Caroline Emma Beverage

I want to be a Christian
a lying little meanie,
act like I’m a weenie,
cause that's what Christians do.

I want to be a Christian
lie about the heathens
kick around some pagans
because that's what Christians do.

I want to be Christian
beat anyone who crosses me
I've got that book to back up me
and that's what Christians do.

I'll give you hell and act like Satan
tell you how bad you are
while ignoring all that Christ has said
because that's what Christians do.

I'll make you wish that you were dead
that's easier than working on my own head
and I won’t listen to a thing you’ve said
because that's what Christians do.

And if you frighten me at all
I’ll trip and beat and make you fall.
Make you wish you didn’t exist at all
Because that’s what Christians do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Emma Beverage's Writing

The Law of Karma

The energy you send out,
returns to you multiplied by three.
But if you are aware, conscious, awake,
then you will manifest your fate
not merely by three times three
but seven fold returns to thee!
Seven fold will bring about
exactly what you have sent out.
And so tis wise to refrain
from slapping down those
who seek to win or gain
by lies, deceit and dishonesty.
Their fate has already been
sealed by their choices
and so has yours,
Rejoice, rejoice!


Remember well, this rule of thumb
ignore your enemies and what they've done
they will bring about their own defeat.
The law of Karma can't be deceived.